Pev's Paintball & Airsoft Park — Attraction in Brambleton

Bottom line is go to Pev’s for all your paintball needs first (play and equipment). There are other decent places to paintball, but Pev’s is my go-to spot, because Pev’s as a company displays a positive attitude, honesty, and integrity, which are seemingly harder to find. If you have a few minutes to read why, here are the details:

I started going paintballing with my son when he was eight, which is the minimum age for playing with walk-ons. They do have low-impact and pee-wee paintball for younger kids, but that is for private groups.

I have only had a couple of issues with other players, but those were either walk-ons or high-ends who rarely come to Pev’s, and I never say any of them second time. Like anywhere you go, you will always encounter jerks, but that is not Pev’s fault. I read a negative review that said walk-ons have to play against high-ends and that was unfair. Whereas that is sometimes true, the Pev’s regular high-ends are almost all really respectful. When my son was first learning, without asking they would let him try shooting their guns for a couple shots, teach him tips and techniques, and encourage him on and off the field. Also, when he was first learning, people had plenty of opportunities to light him up, but the Pev’s regular high-end players would often go out of their way to make him surrender so they did not have to shoot him. These experiences greatly contributed to my son loving the sport. Moreover, Pev’s has rules in place to make things fair when walk-ons and high-ends get mixed. High-ends when playing with walk-ons cannot use the advanced features on their guns. So, the only advantages the high-ends really have is they know the field a bit better and their paint might shoot a bit straighter because they have better barrels. The paint is the same though. Moreover, Pev’s tries to keep the two groups separate, but sometimes due to space and number of refs it is unavoidable. Pev’s is a great environment to learn the sport. Additionally, it has a been a great bonding experience for my son and me, as we go on a regular basis and that is our time.

The refs are always professional and friendly with us. And, the refs would often look out for my son because he was usually the smallest player on the field. If he was the last man standing, they would just call the game, so he did not get repeatedly shot. They want people to enjoy the sport.

The staff in the pro-shop are super friendly and professional. They really know a great deal about the equipment. If you do not know anything about the sport, tell them and ask them to help you. They have always been willing to share their knowledge with me. Moreover, they had several opportunities to oversell me stuff when I was first learning, but never did. In fact, on a couple of occasions they told me not to buy the more expensive item because it did not make sense for me at that time with the equipment I purchased.

The prices are very fair. If you only go once as a walk-on, then it might seem expensive. However, buy a VIP membership and really save. Once you get a membership you get discounts on everything you buy, guess passes to bring friends, some free lunch coupons, etc. Then buy some equipment within your budget and get discounted paint when you go. In the long run, it turns out to be quite affordable, as far as paintball prices go. Their prices are lower than ANS and Amazon, which they show you right up front. If you find it cheaper then ask if they can price match. Also, since it is November when I am writing this review, call them and ask about their Black Friday deals. An added bonus is that when you buy from Pev’s you are supporting local business. Every dollar that stays in the area helps the area.

Reading the one- and two-star reviews, most of those could be solved by the people communicating with Pev’s. Anytime I had a request for something, I just asked, and the staff were pretty...

The only reason to go here is because it is conveniently located for those inside the beltway. My biggest complaint is that the place seems very unorganized. It's run by kids, basically. My last time there I rented a gun, and the kids at the rental counter forgot to fill up my air and didn't top off my paintballs. Had to go back to get the problem corrected.

Then, since the games are coordinated by kids, I played a total of four games in four hours. They'll send you to one place, then say to go to another, then send you to yet another. A good 90% of the time I was there, I was not actually playing paintball, but walking around sweating in full gear just trying to get to a spot where a game was about to start. You might be able to get two games in on the same map, and then they send you to a different map. But if a game is in progress there, or if it just hasn't yet been fully coordinated, you'll end up sitting in the dead zone for 20 minutes waiting for a game to end before they tell you to go to the new map. And that means whatever team is waiting to play on YOUR map, they have to wait too. There's a whole pipeline of teams waiting to play maps. They should just have one map designated for young kids, another map designated for very advanced players, and the rest designated for anybody else, and let people move between maps as they please, with no more than 10 minutes in between games. Why all this splitting up teams and sending them...

I’ve been coming to Pev’s since 2012ish and it was always a lot of fun. I’ve been probably 20 times and sadly the experience has gotten worse each time. My last visit, a few hours ago at the time of this review, was the worst. The refs are decent, but the games aren’t well managed at all. It seems that every time I go the walk on, or public games, have more and more people on each team. Today a ref radio’d in to the ref on our side and confirmed it was around 30 on 30. That’s too many people and it completely sucks the fun out of the game. You basically can’t move, as positions on the map are being watched. You can’t make any crazy plays because where there is one person there will be many more, and worst of all it’s a waste of paint. We paid $106 for about 3-4 games. The paint was $66 of the $106. $106 for 3-4 mediocre games of long range gunfights with pretty much no movement (as most people sit where they start and hide the entirety of the game) and almost no strategy. Lastly, every time I’ve gone they split people with their own paintball guns (which despite what they may say, give a huge advantage to that player) and people with rentals. They did not do that.

It seems to me that as Pev’s has gotten more popular, they either care less about individual customers, or a combination of that and not having the resources to accommodate the influx of players. Either way, currently it’s a waste of money and I won’t be coming back...